‘Made by Refugee’ Labels By Kien Quan In NYC

‘Made by Refugee’ Labels By Kien Quan In NYC

Photographer Kien Quan and his creative partner Jillian Young have traveled from borough to borough slapping goods with “made by refugee” stickers, from bottles of Sriracha chili sauce in an Astoria grocery store to books by Sigmund Freud and copies of the Bible at famed East Village shop The Strand — and they documented it all on camera so the project will live on past the stickers’ shelf lives.

“I just had a thought, ‘If this refugee didn’t come over and create Sriracha, nobody in Brooklyn would be saying ‘This is the newest rage,'” said Quan of the iconic sauce created by Vietnamese refugee David Tran.

Quan, 26, was moved to launch the project after the first iteration of President Donald Trump’s refugee ban was implemented in late January, he said. He read an article noting a resistance to accepting refugees after the Vietnam War, and realized Americans may not be drowning their food in the now-famous Sriracha sauce if Tran had not been allowed in the country.

So he decided to remind local shoppers who should take the credit for their most cherished products.

The artists carried out the sticker campaign over several days about a month ago, and put up a video March 15 documenting the project. Quan has also posted a downloadable sticker sheet to his website so others can put more refugee labels on city goods.

STICKERS

We got the message across to shoppers by pasting it onto consumer goods. If you would like to join the movement, here is a downloadable sticker sheet that can be printed. If you send me a shot of the label on your product, I will repost it on our Facebook page.